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On March 27, nearly 200 experts and scholars from the coating and dye industry, corporate representatives, and officials from relevant departments across the country gathered in Shanghai to attend the 14th \"Forum on the Development of Green Coatings and Safe, Ecological Dyes\", hosted by the Shanghai Coating and Dye Industry Association. Focusing on the theme of \"green leadership and joint development,\" it delves into pathways for green transformation and technological innovation, while discussing the vision for high-quality development in the coatings and dyes industry. Zhang Yanshen, chief engineer of the China Dye Industry Association, delivered a speech at the meeting and presented a report on the industry’s performance. She said that despite various challenges such as environmental pressures and market competition, the policy direction is clear and the path for development is well defined, adding that she fully endorsed the plans of the Shanghai Coatings and Dyes Industry Association for 2025. She put forward four hopes for the development of the industry: adhering to a green bottom line, strengthening technological innovation, deepening collaboration within the industrial chain, and fulfilling social responsibilities. The **15th Five-Year Plan** adopted at this year’s Two Sessions clearly states that efforts to develop the economy should be focused on the real economy, with an emphasis on intelligence, sustainability, and integration, in order to accelerate the construction of a strong manufacturing nation and a nation renowned for its quality standards. For the chemical industry, key strategies of differentiated approaches and quality improvement have been proposed: for traditional chemicals, the focus is on eliminating inefficiencies, optimizing the structure, ensuring safety, and reducing carbon emissions; for specialty chemicals, the emphasis is on targeting high-end markets, addressing weaknesses, increasing added value, and fostering innovation. These strategies present important opportunities for the coatings and dyes industries. Over the past year, the Shanghai Dyeing and Printing Association has fully played its role as a bridge and link, guiding all its member companies in overcoming challenges. Significant progress has been made in areas such as green research and development and process upgrades, making positive contributions to the development of the industry and the construction of an ecological civilization. Currently, environmental regulations are becoming increasingly strict, and there is a growing demand in the market for green products, which forces the industry to accelerate its transformation and boost innovation. The theme of this forum is precisely a key measure to address the challenges in development and plan for future paths. It is hoped that industry peers will focus on green technology pathways, overcome key challenges, and drive the industry’s transformation from merely meeting regulatory requirements to achieving high quality and efficiency. When discussing the future development of the industry, Zhang Yanshen emphasized the need to adhere to green principles, implement the \"dual carbon\" goals, promote greening throughout the entire life cycle of production and products, align with international standards, and seize opportunities for growth. It is necessary to strengthen technological innovation, focus on green, intelligent, and high-end development, enhance integration among industry, academia, and research institutions, accelerate the transformation of research results, and foster new forms of productive capacity. At the same time, it is necessary to deepen collaboration within the industrial chain, leverage the role of associations, promote cooperation between upstream and downstream entities, improve the supply chain system, standardize market order, and pool efforts for development. It is necessary to fulfill social responsibilities, uphold the standards of quality and safety, actively participate in international exchanges, demonstrate the strength of the industry, and show a sense of responsibility through concrete actions. Liu Jie, secretary-general of the China Coatings Industry Association, delivered a speech at the meeting, emphasizing that the industry should focus on quality and service, but not on low prices. He revealed that the upcoming 15th Five-Year Plan for China’s coating industry will focus on developing brand systems with regional, national, and even global influence ； Promote the localization of key raw materials to ensure supply chain security ； Further increase the proportion of environmentally friendly coatings, striving to raise it from the current 60% to 70% on par with levels in Europe and the United States ； Raise the level of intelligence and digitalization, and drive the industry’s transition from automation to digitalization and intelligence ； Deepen collaborative innovation with downstream industries, particularly \"secondary innovation\" in sectors such as the automotive industry, to achieve technological breakthroughs in energy conservation, material savings, and environmental protection. Liu Jie also shared information on the industry’s performance: by 2025, China’s coating industry will have a total production volume of 34.602 million tons, with main business revenue reaching 388.15 billion yuan and a profit total of 29.25 billion yuan. He pointed out that the downstream market for coatings is showing three major trends: the construction coatings market is experiencing increasing polarization, while demand is growing strongly in areas such as urban renewal, housing upgrades for the elderly, and energy-efficient homes ； Driven by policies such as equipment upgrades and trade-ins, the coating products in industries like automobiles, ships, and new energy sources will maintain moderate to rapid growth rates ； There is significant room for improvement in the supply chain. The pace of domestic substitution is accelerating in sectors such as electronics, offshore engineering, and shipbuilding; mastering the core technologies related to key raw materials will become crucial for companies to gain a competitive edge in the market. Qiu Ping, executive vice president and member of the Party committee of the Shanghai Industrial Economy Federation, delivered a speech at the meeting, suggesting that further efforts should be made to support the development of enterprises, and that support should be provided for their high-quality growth by focusing on digital empowerment and green transformation ； Further promote industrial upgrading and strengthen coordination across the upstream and downstream stages of the industrial chain, particularly by deepening industry-wide communication and cooperation in fields with wide-ranging applications such as automobiles, ships, and home appliances ； Further strengthen the leadership role of party building, using it to drive the development of the association itself. Yang Xianghong, a seasoned expert in the coatings industry, conducted an in-depth analysis of the current development status and potential solutions for architectural and industrial coatings under the theme of \"How to drive high-quality development in the industry through innovation by 2026\". He summarized six key development trends: the demand for coatings in cities above tier 4 is shifting toward repainting ； Prefabricated buildings change painting rules ； There is a clear trend toward the inorganicization of resins used in exterior wall paints, and the use of bio-based resins in interior wall paints ； Artistic coatings and stone-like paints are accelerating the replacement of traditional flat latex paints. He emphasized that China’s industrial coatings account for over 60% of the global market, but the industry lacks concentration and world-class brands; the high-end market remains dominated by foreign companies. Innovation is key to breaking through this situation, and the new energy sector is bringing new opportunities for development to this industry. Xu Jinzhi, deputy general manager and chief engineer of Shanghai Zhongnan Building Materials Co., Ltd., said that aerogels are regarded as \"miracle materials that can change the world\"; they possess a continuous three-dimensional nanonetwork structure, giving them excellent thermal insulation properties. To address industry challenges such as long production cycles, high raw material costs, and difficulties in dispersing superhydrophobic materials, Zhongnan Building Materials has improved the raw materials and formulations used to convert aerogel powder into high-concentration aqueous pastes. This approach effectively solves the problem of aerogel dust dispersion, and these pastes can be widely applied in building energy efficiency and industrial insulation applications. Hou Peilin, Sales Director for the Greater China region at Zhengzhou Sanhua Technology Industry Co., Ltd., shared digital solutions for color tuning systems. To address issues such as fluctuations in raw material batches, instability of sanding machines, and inaccurate addition of additives in domestic enterprises, he proposed systematic solutions including batch testing of raw materials upon arrival, the use of dedicated sanding machines for specific colors, testing of the color stability of finished products, and maintaining a stable ratio of composite solvents – all of which can help enterprises achieve intelligent operations in their color adjustment workshops. Dr. Li Xianfu, an associate professor at Anhui University of Engineering, shared his insights on the selection and application of drying agents for water-based coatings. He pointed out that, provided the technical specifications and process requirements are met, water-based coating curing agents with good cost-performance should be chosen ； For water-based alkyd systems, the post-addition method should be preferred as much as possible ； In practical applications, the amount to be added must be considered comprehensively, along with the cost-performance ratio. Dr. Li Hongqi, an associate researcher at Donghua University, shared the recent advances in the applications of photochromic materials based on spiropyrans. Spiropyran compounds exhibit responsiveness to multiple stimuli such as light, temperature, solvent, pH, electricity, force, and radiation, and hold broad application prospects in areas such as colorimetric/fluorescent probes, information storage, anti-counterfeiting, soft robotics, wearable flexible electronic devices, drug delivery and controlled release, as well as disease diagnosis and treatment. Song Mengmeng, an application engineer at Shanghai Resin Factory Co., Ltd., shared that silicone resin combines the properties and excellent performance of organic resins and inorganic materials, and can be used in areas such as high-temperature resistant silicone coatings, anti-corrosion coatings, anti-fouling and anti-graffiti coatings, and insulating coatings. In 2024, the global market size for silicone coatings was approximately $8.5 billion, with China accounting for 35% of this market, and these coatings are primarily used in the electronics and electrical equipment sector. In addition, Li Chunting, the chief engineer of Changshu Sanaifu Chemical New Materials Co., Ltd., presented the research progress on environmentally friendly FEVE fluorocarbon resins, while Mao Xiongwei, the chief engineer of Zhejiang Kelisen Chemical Co., Ltd., shared information on acrylic emulsions for building coatings with \"zero additives\" and their application technologies. Dong Yiping, secretary-general of the Shanghai Coatings and Dyes Industry Association, said that the successful holding of the 14th \"Green Coatings and Safe, Eco-friendly Dyes Development Forum\" provided a high-level platform for exchange within the coatings and dyes industry, helped to build consensus on its development, and clarified the direction for green transformation and innovative growth. Standing at a new starting point in the first year of the 15th Five-Year Plan, Shanghai’s coating and dye industry will move forward with even greater determination on its journey toward high-quality development.